Surf trumps snow for tech exec who grew up skiing Mike Featherstone finds the balance between work and play on the waves at Manly Beach, Sydney. He answers our Time Out Q&A Mike Featherstone, ready for the water. Life & Leisure Save Share M ike Featherstone is managing director, APAC, for Pluralsight, an online training company for developers and other IT professionals. He lives in Sydney. How long have you been surfing and how did you get into it? I grew up sliding around on the snow at Alta and Snowbird in the American Rockies in my home state of Utah. It wasnât until I met my California-born wife that I started surfing. My first trip to meet her parents resulted in me getting a crash course on the waves of Doheny State Beach, near her childhood home, and from that moment I was hooked.